19. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions has also referred to said context in several of his reports, of extrajudicial complaints filed on the hands of security agents that take place in Venezuela, and on the threats received by relatives of the victims to prevent them from filing complaints for the events6. In effect, the Commission observes that in 2001, the Human Rights Committee, on its final observations regarding Venezuela, expressed its serious concern for the “several complaints filed regarding extrajudicial executions and […] the lack of response from the State.” 7 20. In the case of the IACHR, since its visit on site carried out in Venezuela in the year 2002, it confirmed the existence of a problem of extrajudicial executions committed by state police agents and/or parapolice or “extermination” groups under their acquiescence or collaboration, by means of different patterns. In its reports of the years 2002, 2003, 2005, 2009, as well as in its country report of 2017, the IACHR analyzed the characteristics of these types of cases and expressed its concern regarding the continuity of this problem, as well as for the serious situation of impunity registered in said cases.8 21. Regarding the modus operandi of the executions, the IACHR has identified that, in some cases, these are carried out in the context of simulated confrontations during routine procedures (for example, resistance to arrest), or when the victims have been illegally and/or arbitrarily arrested and are under state custody. In this way, in other circumstances, it has been identified that the attacks are carried out after illegal searches of hooded or non-identified persons that proceed the murder of the victims.9 22. Based on the information registered by organizations of the Venezuelan civil society, the Commission has established that this phenomenon commonly affects the “poorest sectors,” in the context of operations or preventive plans aimed at the detection, arrest and retention of citizens of an alleged criminal behavior. In this way, “[...] persons presumed to be involved are arrested without taking the corresponding measures in fraganti in the perpetration of crimes or being arrested, and these persons are brutally apprehended, through blows [...] and in many cases are shot in the presence of witnesses, introduced wounded to the police unit, and they subsequently appear dead in some abandoned place or are admitted to a hospital or medical center without vital signs.”10 According to the petitioners, the victims in Falcón state are “young men (...) who belong to the most vulnerable socio-economic sectors.”11 23. Moreover, the modus operandi includes: the threats and the murder against witnesses, including eyewitnesses of the events, who due to this situation “generally do not participate in the investigation of the events carried out by the Public Ministry;” the “modification of the place of the events” including the modification or alteration of the evidence, and the criminalization of the victims before the public opinion justifying their death Commission on Human Rights, Justice and Peace of the State of Aragua; and Annex 2. Report prepared by the National Commission for the Police Reform (CONAREPOL). Characteristics of the Venezuelan Police. 2007. Quoted in: I/A Court of H.R. Case Landaeta Mejías Brothers and others Vs. Venezuela. Preliminary objections. Merits. Reparations and Costs. Judgment of August 27, 2014. Series C No. 281. para. 4755. 6 United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. Reports before the Commission on Human Rights: E-CN.4-1994-7; E/CN.4/1998/68/Add.1; E/CN.4/1999/39/Add.1; E/CN.4/2001/9/Add.1; E/CN.4/2003/3/Add.1; E/CN.4/2004/7/Add.1. Reports before the United Nations General Assembly see: A/55/288, August 11, 2000. Dis. 7 UN CCPR. Final observations of the Human Rights Committee. VENEZUELA. CCPR/CO/71/VEN. April 26, 2001. Para. 7. 8 See: IACHR. Annual Report from 2005. Chapter IV regarding Venezuela. Section about the situation of impunity, particularly before the case of extrajudicial executions; IACHR. Annual Report from 2004. Chapter V. Monitoring report on the compliance of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela with the recommendations provided by the IACHR in the Report on the Human Rights Situation in Venezuela (2003), Para. 144; IACHR. Report on the Human Rights Situation in Venezuela. October 24, 2003. Paras. 321 – 343. In the subsequent years, the IACHR has continued monitoring this serious problem in its report about Democracy and Human Rights in Venezuela of the year 2009, as well as by public hearings, in its annual reports and individual cases, confirming that until now, complaints are still being filed for the existence of this problem in Venezuela. See: IACHR. Democracy and Human Rights in Venezuela. December 30, 2009. paras. 35, 756 and 789; IACHR. Annual Report from 2016. Chapter IV regarding Venezuela. Section regarding the situation of public safety; IACHR. Annual Report from 2015. Chapter IV regarding Venezuela. Section regarding the situation of violence and public safety; IACHR. Annual Report from 2013. Chapter IV regarding Venezuela. Section regarding alleged violence by members of the Public Force; and the IACHR. Democratic Institutionalist, Rule of Law and Human Rights in Venezuela. Country report. December 31, 2017. 9 See: IACHR. Report on the Human Rights Situation in Venezuela, October 24, 2003. Paras. 321 – 343. 10 Assessment on the Human Rights Situation in the State of Aragua between July 1996 and March 2003, prepared by the Commission on Human Rights, Justice and Peace of the State of Aragua. Quoted in: IACHR. Report No. 58/12. Case 12.606. Merits. Landaeta Mejías Brothers. Venezuela. March 21, 2012. 11 See: COFAVIC/Parapolice groups in Venezuela, 2005, page 25. 4